Soviets Pull Top Generals In Shake-up

MOSCOW — A reshuffling of the Soviet military high command is believed to be under way after the transfer last weekend of two Russian generals from top posts in East Germany.

Soviet officials insisted Thursday they had no information about Western press reports that the changes could include the reinstatement of Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, 67, as a deputy defense minister.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that Ogarkov, ousted in apparent disgrace last September from his job as military chief of staff and first deputy minister of defense, also would replace Marshal Viktor Kulikov, 64, as commander in chief of the Warsaw Pact forces.

Officials at the Defense and Foreign ministries said they knew nothing about this or Western reports that Marshal Alexei Yepishev, 77, head of the Soviet military's main political directorate since 1962, had retired.

Yepishev unofficially was said to have been replaced by one of his former deputies, Gen. Alexei Lissichev, who left a senior post with Soviet forces in East Germany last weekend.

The commander of Russia's 400,000 soldiers in East Germany, Gen. Mikhail Zaitsev, 62, also left his post over the weekend. His future remains uncertain.

Diplomats and foreign military attaches said the transfer of the two top men from East Germany signaled a reshuffling of top personnel.

Yepishev, head of the military's political commissar network, has held his job for more than 22 years and is well beyond retirement age.